Brown bags 'em

Behind guard's 34, Illini pass 1st Big Ten test

Illinois 60, Michigan State 50

January 06, 2006|By Neil Milbert, Tribune staff reporter.

CHAMPAIGN — After spending much of its time on Easy Street in compiling a 14-0 non-conference record, Illinois began its treacherous trek down a long dark alley Thursday night when the Big Ten segment of the season began.

But Dee Brown was carrying a torch, and with an orange-emblazoned sellout crowd in Assembly Hall fanning the flames, the senior point guard led the sixth-ranked Illini to a 60-50 victory over seventh-ranked Michigan State, the preseason pick to win the conference title.

"I hit a few early and my team kept calling my number," said Brown, who amassed a career-high 34 points, seven more than his previous high in last season's final Big Ten home game against Purdue. "My big guys did a wonderful job of screening.

"Against a great program like that it's special, but the win is more important than anything I did tonight."

Brown scored 23 of his 34 in the first half, including a three-pointer at the buzzer that gave the Illini a 35-28 lead. During his first-half spree he made 8 of 12 shots, as many field goals as the entire Michigan State team, which took 23 shots.

For the game, Brown was 12 of 22. He made 7 of 13 shots beyond the three-point arc and was 3 of 3 from the free-throw line.

Meanwhile, Maurice Ager, the Michigan State guard who went into the game as the Big Ten's scoring leader with a 22-point average, made only 3 of 8 shots and was held to nine points, thanks mainly to the defensive work of Brian Randle.

Ager's out-of-character shooting was contagious. The normally explosive Spartans (12-3) made only 36.2 percent of their shots in the loss that ended their winning streak at 11 games.

"Your best players have to play better than they did," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, referring to Ager and fellow guard Shannon Brown (6 of 16) and center Paul Davis (3 of 9). "We were out of sync offensively, but you have to give the Illinois defense credit.

"They are a very good team, different than last year (when the Illini finished 37-2 after losing the national championship game to North Carolina). People ask me about Ager, (Shannon) Brown and Davis. It was Dee Brown single-handedly tonight.

"I'm not sure if Illinois was at its best; I'm sure we weren't at our best; and Dee Brown was at his very, very best. I've never seen a better performance than the way Dee played. He made some unbelievable shots. There were three or four times I said: `I'm glad he's taking that shot; Oh, shoot, it went in!'"

The Illini's next highest scorer was fellow guard Rich McBride with eight.

After the Spartans came back from an 8-4 deficit to gain a 13-10 lead, McBride hit the three-pointer that tied the score. Then Illini coach Bruce Weber went with a three-guard lineup and Brown and freshman Chester Frazier followed suit with threes for a 9-0 run that gave the Illini the lead for good.

The closest Michigan State came was 20-19 late in the first half. Early in the second half the Spartans capitalized on a rash of Illinois turnovers to shave their deficit to three points.

After seeing its lead dwindle to 44-41 on back-to-back baskets by 6-6 football player Matt Trannon, Illinois got its act back together and went on a 9-2 run.

James Augustine, who was the Illini's leading scorer during non-conference play with a 14.4 average, had a bad night offensively. He made only 2 of 5 shots in scoring seven points and made seven turnovers. But the 6-10 senior was a defensive force with three blocked shots and two steals and on the boards with nine rebounds.

"Luckily, Dee came through," Augustine said.

Weber, who achieved somewhat of a milestone--his first technical foul in three seasons at Illinois--joined the chorus lauding Brown.

"All of Dee's career he has been a marquee guy," he said after the Illini extended their Assembly Hall winning streak to 30 games, tying Gonzaga for the longest home-court winning streak in the nation. "He loves big games; it was phenomenal what he did tonight.

"We drew up plays in the huddle, anything we could think up to get him shots."